Here are just a few of the hundreds of yoga classes and courseswhich are available in Britain. For details of yoga about where you live in the UK, then check out your local sports centre bulletin board or consult Best Yoga Centres & Retreats by Stafford Whiteaker.
Selected Yoga places by region. Scroll down to find Essex, Lancashire, London, Northamptonshire, Surrey and Yorkshire
ESSEX
Iyengar Yoga Centre for Essex
Chelmsford Tel: +44 (0)1224 5421496
Contact: Susan Long
Outdoor Yoga in Essex
South East Essex Countryside
Tel: +44 (0)1702 200386
yogacoach@hotmail.com
Weekly walks and yoga outdoors. The yoga sessions are held in various woodland and park settings. A lovely way to unwind, breathe some fresh air, and yoga out the stress. Although British weather is often against it, outdoors is really the ideal place for yoga as the green environment helps you envision a bigger world than your ordinary concerns, makes you want to breathe deeply, and is great fun.
Club Kingswood
Clayhill Lane
Basildon
Essex SS16
Tel: +44 (0)1268 522954
A members only place so you have to go along to see the facilities and watch one of the yoga classes. These are for both beginners and advanced students, held in the day and in the evening. In addition to the yoga there are some ninety different classes per week going on. Private members only fitness clubs are very competitive and offering a jam-packed programme of activities is bound to attract people. Could be too busy or could be really great fun. Look at some of the other classes in addition to the yoga so that you can get an idea of the standard of teaching and that, because the place is so busy, the instruction is not rushed. Facilities include gym, beauty salon, and an aromatherapy room.
LANCASHIRE
Tara Sports & Leisure
Grains Road
Shaw
Oldham
Lancashire OL2 Tel: +44 (0)1706 841460
Mixed level yoga classes, aerobics, step class, circuit training, gym, steamroom - mostly everything you need here.
Hath Yoga Classes
Oswaldtwistle
Lancashire
Tel: +44 (0)12254 396182
jyhill@hotmail.com
Hatha yoga classes on a regular basis with teacher Julie Hill.
Brooklands Country House Health Farm
Bruna Hill
Barnacre
Preston
Lancashire PR3 Tel: +44 (0)1995 605162
Membership needed here but they will encourage you to first come on a tour and look around what is on offer. The facilities are excellent and mostly everything you need with astanga yoga classes plus other courses, a gym, hydro-pool, indoor swimming pool, steam room, aerobics, and relaxation lounges. Worthy of a check-out.
LONDON
Yoga classes and instruction abound in London. They are probably available just around the corner from where you live or work. They can be found in local authority centres, usually professionally run by private companies, where any fees involved are fairly modest to private clubs and centres where facilities can be top of the range with fees to match. There are classes and courses in special yoga centres, dance studios, gyms, alternative therapy centres, health associations, church halls, and private homes. In fact, just about any place where people can come, practice yoga and chill out. Classes in Central London get filled up early in the hours just after the end of the normal working day.
City Yoga Centre
Tel: +44 (0)171 253 3000 Contact: Paul Lurenson
Complete Health Care Centre
Tel: +44 (0)171 7336 0466 www.completehealthcare.co.uk
Bright and welcoming centre with everything to help make you well and relaxed including yoga.
Hatha Yoga for Body-Mind Awareness
Tel: +44 (0)171 372 2203 Contact: Maro Stoyanuidou
Islington Place Website: www.islingtonyoga.com
Islington Yoga has been going for sometime and the reason there is not an address is because the teachers, John Evans and Karen Watson hold classes at different venues in Islington. So go to their website for their current London class venues.
Maida Vale Yoga Institute- Iyengar Yoga
Tel: +44 (0)171 624 3080 Contact: Rosanne Seal
North East London Iyengar Yoga Institute
Tel: +44 (0)171 2564 9137 Contact: Brigid Philip
School of Yoga
Westminster & Croydon Tel: +44 (0)181 657 3258
Spring Health Leisure Club
Tel: +44 (0)7483 6800
www.springhealthleisure.com
Modern, clean, light and airy and very popular with women. Bring the baby because the staff includes a crèche with trained nannies. Many different types of yoga on offer. Smart.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Inner Health School of Yoga
36 Glenfield Drive
Great Doddington
Northamptonshire NN29 Tel: +44 (0)1933 224 963
Gail and Brain Cossera teach classes in Wellingborough and Northampton.
Moulton Leisure & Community Centre
Pound Lane
Moulton
Northampton
Northamptonshire NN3 Tel: +44 (0)1604 670506
Yoga on the programme and you have a gym, badminton, and sauna. There is a mini-children's club twice a week which we think a great idea. You can never start too young in keeping fit and making exercise part and parcel of your lifestyle. Bar.
Overstone Park
Overstone
Northampton
Northamptonshire NN6 Tel: +44 (0)1604 647666
E-mail: info@overstonepark.co.uk
www.overstonepark.co.uk
Part of a hotel complex, Overstone offers yoga classes plus a pool, gym, sauna and steam, jacuzzi, beauty treatments and a bar and restaurant. Golf is available too.
Towcester Centre for Leisure
Springfields
Towcester
Northamptonshire NN12 Tel: +44 (0)1327 358188
Towcester is lucky in having such a large and well provided leisure centre. The area around the place is also attractive and the nearby little canal walkway offers a pleasant stretch for the legs. Here, there are yoga classes, 2 pools, gym, health suite, sauna and steam, function room, a beautician who can be booked privately, and a creche. Café. We wish every local leisure centre was as pleasant a place as Towcester.
SURREY
Ruth White Yoga Centre
Church Farm House
Spring close Lane
Cheam
Surrey SM3 8PU Tel: +44 (0)208 641 7770
Fax: +44 (0)208 287 5318
info@ruthwhiteyoga.com
www.ruthwhiteyoga.com
Retreats are usually on the weekends but there are also four day breaks and a summer holiday. Workshops are held throughout Britain and all are in peaceful country residences with pretty surroundings conducive to yoga spirituality and practice. Both John and Ruth White are exceptionally able teachers and well-known in Britain and have several yoga centres operating. See website for details of places, courses, and charges.
Open: Receives everyone.Rooms: At place of venue in programme. Otherwise Church Farm House has 30 bed spaces. Full Board for groups.Facilities: Disabled sometimes- but you must ask what is suitable for you both for a workshop and in terms of the venue. Otherwise facilities are at the place being used for the workshop or course. If you are going to Church Farm House then ask what is available if you are disabled. See programme.Spiritual Help: Meditation, yoga breathing and postures. Karuna Yoga. Guests Admitted to: Access to whatever are the guest areas.Meals: Guests eat together. Whole food, vegetarian.Special Activities: Planned programme of events. Send for brochure. Guest groups received Situation: Quiet in a town.Maximum Stay: Per programme event.Bookings: Letter, telephone, fax or E-mail.Charges: Specific for each event and venue.Access: Will provide a map.
YORKSHIRE
Kirkby Fleetham Hall
Kirkby Fleetham
Northallerton
N. Yorks. DL7 Tel/ Fax: +44 (0)1609 748747
A big and rather elegantly English house as you approach, but inside all is devoted to the art of living in peace and well being. The range of courses on offer covers yoga, regression therapy or soul drama as it is now called, the art of loving in peace, Shiatsu, and neuro-linguistic programming. Open: March to October.Facilities: Garden, guest lounge, and TV Meals: Vegetarian whole food. Special diets catered Situation: Very quiet in the countryside. Access: Train to Northallerton which in 8 miles away. Bus service limited. Car route
